Report: New Budget Plan Would Kick Millions off Food Stamps

AAEA member, published SNAP expert, available for comment on Presidential proposal

President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for 2018 is being released this week, and a report by the Associated Press says that plan will call for major cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP.

The AP report, which quotes White House memos, shows $193 billion coming out of SNAP funding over the next ten years. That is a cut of more than 25 percent to the federally-funded program that provides financial assistance to low income Americans. It’s a move new U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue suggested might happen earlier this month.

"The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the central component of the social safety net against food insecurity,” said Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois. “Food insecurity has emerged as a leading contributor to negative health outcomes and subsequent higher health care costs in the United States.”

Gundersen, who has done extensive research on SNAP and its effectiveness, has a new paper titled “Partial Identification for Evaluating Food Assistance Programs: A Case Study of the Casual Impact of SNAP on Food Insecurity,” which was recently selected to appear in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

“Our article demonstrates, again, the profound positive impact SNAP has on vulnerable households in the United States,” Gundersen said. “This should be kept in mind whenever changes to SNAP are being proposed.”

If you are interested in reading this latest research, or setting up an interview, please contact Jay Saunders in the AAEA Business Office.

ABOUT AAEA: Established in 1910, the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) is the leading professional association for agricultural and applied economists, with 2,500 members in more than 20 countries. Members of the AAEA work in academic or government institutions as well as in industry and not-for-profit organizations, and engage in a variety of research, teaching, and outreach activities in the areas of agriculture, the environment, food, health, and international development. The AAEA publishes two journals, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and Applied Economic Perspectives & Policy, as well as the online magazine Choices. To learn more, visit www.aaea.org.

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